


Unburied Hatchets

by Borusa



Category: Serrano Legacy
Genre: Altiplano, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 21:57:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Borusa/pseuds/Borusa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vida Serrano has done some more research, with far-reaching consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unburied Hatchets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xylaria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xylaria/gifts).



“I’ve been doing some more research,” retired Admiral Vida Serrano’s eyes were shining, visible even over the mild interference on the comunit. Admiral Heris Serrano’s shoulders slumped. Since her retirement, her aunt had become even more demanding than she had been before it. 

“Into our family history?” she said, trying to remove the lurking feeling of dread. The last time that her aunt had been researching into family history, she’d uncovered a secret that had nearly wrecked a marriage and had looked like it might even start a war.

“Don’t be like that,” Vida said. “But you’re right. I’ve been looking at our family, and particularly at Altiplano. I wanted to know what _really _happened.”

“I thought you said that this was something best left to the historians?” Heris said, and then realised exactly what the reply would be.

Her aunt’s answering grin was almost victorious. “And what am I now, if not a historian?”

Heris bit down on the instant retort. “What have you discovered?” she asked. It was often better to get unpleasant news delivered swiftly.

“I’ve been poking around the archives on Castle Rock,” her aunt replied. “I’ll copy what I found over to you.”

 

Francisco Suiza gulped, as the tall, erect, figure of the man he’d come to meet entered the bar. He watched as the man scanned the people there, before his eyes met Francisco’s, and he walked slowly over. “Suiza,” he said, quietly, curtly. He was dressed in the uniform of the Founders, militarily correct and neat.

_“Commander Pedro Serrano,” Francisco said, not able to hold the quaver out of his voice. It was a hopeless mission, but they’d all decided it had to be tried._

Heris sat in her office, scanning over the documents. Pedro Serrano, more than five centuries ago, had written a diary so incendiary that it had been deemed too much even for the family archives. The conspirators, on Altiplano, had actually made an approach to the family, almost a year before the rebellion: an approach that had been rebuffed, though Pedro had noted that the family was not unsympathetic to the grievances. That he himself thought that the patrons of the Serranos were going too far, that they had breached the terms of the charter that had settled the planet. Heris remembered the old saw – three sides to every story. The diary made fascinating, if not always comfortable reading. Pedro Serrano been on duty when the uprising had occurred. When the Garcia-Macdonalds had been massacred. Had he kept what he knew to himself? Had he looked away when it happened? He didn’t say. Heris hissed in frustration, and put the documents away. She looked up at the chronometer – halfway through third watch. Just the perfect time to check up on environmental.

 

Esmay was in the refresher when Barin read the message from his aunt Heris. Their schedules had crossed for a blissful few days, and they had some leave due. Barin was looking nervous, as came out, towelling herself down. “Esmay...” he said, his voice trailing off. On the screen, the message blinked. “We’ve been asked to go to a family meeting.”

A family meeting of the Serranos was not a matter to be taken lightly. Esmay was startled. “Is there trouble?” she asked.

Barin shook his head, not in denial. “I don’t know,” he said. “But Aunt... Heris asked for you to come specifically.”

Esmay bit back on the instinctive response, to say that if Heris Serrano asked it, it would be alright. That old hero worship hadn’t entirely gone away. “Any hint at all what it’s about?” she said. “They couldn’t... try to split us up again?”

“No,” Barin said, with a shake of his head. “Aunt Heris would have mentioned that; would have warned us. But... it sounds serious.”

 

The Serrano family gathering, held in a suite of rooms clustered around a large hall, was even more intimidating than the last one. After the rejuvenation crisis, there were even more Admirals comparing stars and telling incredibly detailed stories. There was a thumping noise from the front, where Retired Admiral Vida Serrano was slamming a book down on a table. Eventually, quiet fell. Esmay looked worriedly at Barin, who smiled back in a way that probably intended to be reassuring. .

“As you all know,” Vida said, her voice carrying easily. Even in a room full of people with command presence, her formidable personality stood out. “We have an unresolved issue with the people of Altiplano; specifically with the Suizas, the Escandons and the Vicarios.” Esmay’s heart had fallen through her boots at the word “Altiplano” and had continued downwards. Now, the presence of Barin at her side was really reassuring. If they had to make a run for it, he might deter some people from starting shooting.

“Don’t worry,” a different voice murmured in her ear. Esmay looked around to see Heris Serrano standing just behind her. “It’s a new development. Possibly a way to... end it.”

Vida was continuing. “I’ve discovered that it’s... possible... that a Serrano was at least complicit in the plot. And that the Family Garcia-Macdonald had acted outside the charter.” The room exploded into arguments, voices rising rapidly, and not a few hostile glances being turned on Esmay and Barin. Heris stood alongside them, and then nodded, as two more Serranos emerged from the crowd to stand beside them. Barin’s parents, who smiled warmly. “No matter what Vida’s found, or what happens because of it,” Podjar, Barin’s mother, said, “You’re still our daughter.”

Vida slammed the book down on the table again, and eventually quiet fell, just as someone with far too louder a voice declaimed “I don’t understand what difference it makes!”

“It means that there was wrong on both sides,” Vida thundered. “It means that the blood oath can be ended. With blood, yes. But we can leave this behind.” Silence. Deathly silence. “But I need your approval. To end this vendetta that we’ve had for so long, though we did not know against who. And to end it in honour.”

The room was silent and tense. Every muscle in Esmay’s body was locked tight. Heris stepped forward, beside her. “I say, yes,” she said, clearly.

Kerin, too, took a step forward, Podjar’s hand in his. “Yes,” they said in unison.

A long pause, before the next Serrano spoke. But one by one they all came forward, some reluctantly, some confidently. “Esmay,” Vida said, looking at her directly. “We need you to carry a message to your father, and to the Landsmen’s Guild of Altiplano. It needs to be carried in person.”

 

 

 

The sun shone down on the valley near the Suiza Estancia. There was a crowd, gathered around – representatives of the landsmen’s guild, of the Serranos. Suizas, Vicarios and Escandons. Luci, the Landsbride, stood with Vida Serrano in the centre of the circle, with the Docent Haiza. Heris stood with Esmay and Barin.

“For the Suizas,” Casimir, Esmay’s father, said, stepping forward. “And the Escandons and the Vicarios.” His voice was strong, though there was a hint of tiredness there that had not been present when Esmay had last seen him. “We bury the acts of our forefathers in the past.” There had been a lot of wrangling, when Esmay had delivered her message. Rows. The Guild had almost dissolved into a brawl. And it had cost Casimir a lot. Cost the Suizas a lot of political capital, to get this through. It would never undo the wrong that had been done to her, Esmay knew, but it still made her proud to see her father doing what was right.

“For the Serranos,” Vida said. “We bury the enmity of our forebears in the past.”. The Docent stepped forward, and offered both Casimir and Vida knives. The two representatives accepted them, and then – carefully – Casimir took Vida’s hand, and cut it, the blood falling to the soil – the first Serrano blood to be shed on Altiplano since the rebellion. And then Vida took Casimir’s hand, and cut across it, and his blood joined hers.. “Let the blood that has been spilt today be the last to be spilt in this quarrel,” the Docent continued. “From now until this world is consumed by fire.”

Esmay looked at Barin, feeling as if a shadow that had hung over them had finally vanished, and without a word, took his hand. She felt Heris’ approval, somehow, and saw it in the eyes of her father and Barin’s grandmother. And she felt for the first time the growing certainty that things were going to work out just fine. For her and for Barin, and for their daughter, when she arrived.


End file.
